Nagano's 'breaking out really late' from California takes us past college days, to post-graduate studies. 

When he left Morro Bay to go to University it was not specifically with an idea of a career in music.

I went to University in California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), between 1970 and 1974, to become a lawyer.  I did two different degrees simultaneously, sociology and music, in the two different departments.  I then moved to San Francisco originally with the idea that I may pursue a law degree (via a conversion course), because I was interested - and remain so today - in international politics, diplomacy, the foreign service. 

But what probably made for me one of the most important and pivotal decisions to concentrate purely on music was the study of composition: my teachers were Grosvenor Cooper and Roger Nixon (no relationship to Richard).

Then at San Francisco State University (1974 to 1976) I worked with the great cellist and teacher Laszlo Varga, who was in the Lener String Quartet from Budapest, and was principal cellist of New York Philharmonic for many, many years under Bruno Walter, Dmitri Mitropoulos and then during Lenny Bernstein's time.  So I worked with him and continue to do so; we remain very, very close.  He was the one who started to steer me strongly towards conducting, so that's what I mean when I say I came rather late; primarily with composition before hand.

And does Nagano compose any more?  He laughs: "No, I don't compose now.  While I seemed to be quite able from the point of view of craftsmanship, I was not very good in the creative aspects!  However, having the skills of composition only increases the admiration that one can have for the exceptionally talented who have composed great works".